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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Wonderland writes : I'm watching True Blood at the moment, HBO's jaw-socking vampire series. Some of the best television I've seen in a long while. In episode 9 or so, there's a magic moment where Bill (a vampire) is playing golf (during the day). Pan out, and he's on the Wii. Next scene, vamp visitors ask him, "what's your game? I see you're playing Wii...".

If this is product placement, it's genius.

http://www.wonderlandblog.com/wonderland/2009/01/whats-your-game.html

I also posted about this in November and you can watch the video of this scene:

Btanalo sent me an email with a great question about Dean, the dog. I love receiving email but I can't promise that I will always be able to find or know the answer to questions , but this time I was able to find out the answer for her ...

She wrote :Dallas,

I'd sure like to know more about the dog who plays Dean/Sam. Have you seen anything written up about him/her?bt

Well BT - I'd like you to meet the animal actor who actually plays Dean , his real name is Duffy and he is an English Shepard. Dean as we know is Sam's alter ego , or what he becomes when he shifts to a dog from his human form.Dean ... I mean Duffy actually works at Boone's Animals for Hollywood.http://www.boonesanimals.com/

I also believe that the lovely Tina, the cat may also be one of the British Blue cats that also work with Duffy at Boone's.

Established in 1940, American Humane’s Film & Television Unit is the leading authority on the safe use of animals in film. We are the only animal welfare organization in the world with on-set jurisdiction from the Screen Actors Guild to supervise the use of animals. We are also the only organization with the authority to issue our renowned “No Animals Were Harmed”® end-credit disclaimer.

No, it IS NOT just a facade on some studio back lot. It's a real home and a real Pre-Civil War historic treasure.

No, it's not exactly located in Bon Temps and it is not next to the Tall Pines (Bon Temp) cemetery , nor just up the road from Sookie's house but it is a real home and a real beauty.

Let me say RIGHT off, I am not divulging any secrets or letting anyone see anything that hasn't already been made very public, but I would caution anyone to never interfere with filming or trespass on private property that also serve as film locations. The TV /Motion Picture industry is a very important business and brings much needed jobs and revenues to the local economies, especially in an area like Louisiana and I would urge everyone to always remember that and always be respectful.

Bill's house is actual known as Roseneath Plantation and it is located in De Soto Parish, Louisiana. When we visited it, last month it was undergoing extensive renovation and the contractor told us it was being renovated for the family. Generations of the Means family have continually inhabited the home since it was built in the mid 19th century. It is a lovely, stately old home and has stood there in that beautiful, lush rolling farm land since 20 years before the Civil War.

I have always thought it's most interesting and unique architectural attribute are the jalousie between the front porch columns. ( those kind of shutters). It's architectural description from it's historic designation.

Roseneath is a large, two story, frame Greek Revival plantation home located in a rural setting near the tiny community of Gloster. It has received relatively few alterations since construction. The house was built for William Bundy Means of South Carolina and has been occupied continuously by the Means family. The date passed down through the generations is 1846.

Vampires have historically been considered evil, and were blamed for many little understood situations in the cultures that spawned them. But fictionally they are currently not considered 100% bad. Since they’re the living dead – creatures to be feared rather than desired – they deserve a closer look.

Body image and wealth are worshipped in our society, and if you add a bit of trendy perversity to the mix you might get an instant hero, or the 20th century equivalent – the antihero. This character is often dark in nature, and they have their own set of morals. They kill and frighten fragile humans, but they are no longer the monsters or villains of yore. Dress evil in smart clothes over a beautiful body and it doesn’t seem so unappealing anymore. Antiheroes are the ultimate outcasts, and if they are self-loathing, that’s even better: the romantic, but evil, protagonist is born . . . or reborn. Who better to personify those attributes than the modern fictional vampire?

Vampires are seen as evil when they lure nubile beauties into blood ritual. Their sensual side is not new. Dracula dawdled over Mina for days, during which time she appeared besotted, deceptive, and furtively aware of puncture wounds to her throat, an entrance into her body that she has allowed. He could have dispatched her as he did Lucy, but instead he lingered until she was begging him for it. It being his blood and her final transformation into another one of his vampire brides (he’d left three of them back at the castle). We didn’t want her to change; we wanted Dracula to be vanquished. This is the fundamental difference: if that story were written in the 21st century we'd want Drac and Mina together in everlasting bliss.

Vampires from an older period fed rampantly on the innocent, but in many books released today, they don’t randomly attack people and kill them. They offer many of their chosen the choice of transformation, and a “blood bond” is created instead of a “blood curse.” These vampires are depicted as torn by the pull of opposite urges, wanting to honor the remnants of their human side but still irresistibly drawn to seek blood. Their fictional human counterparts (buddies, lovers, misguided Renfields) witness their moral struggle, almost as if they were watching a human struggle with a substance addiction. They stand by wanting to offer support, but usually make the process worse, their bodies a pulsating temptation. They are the enablers upon which the plot twists.

In fiction today we want the vampire to get the girl, or boy (Louis and Armand in the Rice Vampire Trilogy; Edward and Bella in Twilight; Bill and Sookie in Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series).

Vampires have changed, but our notions of evil have changed as well. I’ll examine this aspect in my next installment.

We do know from Book 2 that Bill was a Democrat, so he would have probably voted for Obama and would have been celebrating our new presidential today..

bk2Sookies says "I couldn't have been more surprised if Jason had told me Bill had been dating Hillary Clinton (though Bill was a Democrat)"

~~~~~

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our Nation -- not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That is the true genius of America, a faith -- a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted -- at least most of the time.